Those who do re-useable advent calendars..

So far I have choc Christmas puddings, finger lights, balloon helicopters, fake tattoo stickers, clip in coloured hair extensions and some slides. On some of the days when I put in chocolate, I was thinking of putting in a Christmassy activity like bake mince pies or write Christmas cards or make rice crispy house (asda kit for a fiver)

I stupidly started the tradition of making up a rhyming couplet clue and hiding that in the calendar everyday which led to that day' s advent present. This meant that I wasn't restricted by size and so the DDs could get some of the things that they would need anyway(cards for friends, decorations for bedrooms, Christmas pjs, stockings, other things that a lotofpeople put in Christmas Eve hamper bur spread across advent ). This is a much loved tradition even though my girls are now 12 & 14 but the number of times I wake up at 5 in the morning with a hangover from a Christmas party and realise I have forgotten to write the blooming clue and then have to think up a bleeding rhyming couplet with a pounding head - all not conducive to peace and harmony at Christmas.

Giving small presents everyday seemed grabby and made it feel as if the dc were getting far too much before the big day. Even putting stocking fillers in seemed too much and I thought I was ruining their stocking for them.

So the following year I did daily activities. But I kept forgetting to write them out or our plans would change and the whole thing seemed a lot of hassle.

I considered putting decorations in but couldn't see the point as we all decorate the tree together anyway.

So I resorted to chocolate. Which seemed pointless as I might as well just buy a choc calender, the dc don't care about the quality of the chocolate - they are just exicited they get chocolate at breakfast.

So I've given in with it and just buy nice chocolate calenders (not horrible non Chtistmassy themed ones!).

DD is 17 and was lusting after the beauty calendars that Boots and Debenhams do. So I started collecting free samples, bought a few bundles of samples and travel size toiletries from eBay and picked up a few other bits in Poundland. They are all wrapped up in Brown paper and string ready to hang on a little table top tree. I will ask DD to replace each gift with a decoration each day. So by Christmas day the tree will be all sparkly and DD will be very happy. She has no idea I'm planning this, but I know she will love it.

So many ideas, I especially like the idea of the advent tree to decorate as they get older, am going to make a note of that in my Christmas book

I can't scroll back on the app to see who posted but, the poster who gave up on the re-useable calendar, I was planning to put the things to do in weekend days (the only thing we ever do is go to the market really) as we'll have plenty of time for making/baking etc.

My three yo would love those poppers, ty to whoever linked them. She has something similar on a base but it doesn't work so well any more so would be made up with a new one!